(*Authors Note: I entered this poem into a contest on Sherman Alexie’s website, and it was a finalist! The rules were that it could be no longer than 10 lines, and had to include the words skyscraper, robust, apple, lavender, and hate.)
When you walk away,
I’ll want to shove your volatile soul from the tip of a skyscraper,
Watch your body fall like Newton’s apple,
Pop open! One hundred robust watermelons,
Coloring the pavement with all of the “I love you’s” that you took from me.
Today, I wanted to write a self-righteous poem about hate.
But all I can think about,
Is the lavender that would bloom from your wounds as you bled –
How when you walk away,
I won’t actually wish you dead.